Adventure capitol of the World!!

That's what the folks in Queenstown would like you to think. And they're probably right.

Let's see, they have...

Bungy jumping
River Surfing
White water river rafting
Jet Boat trips
Paragliding
Skydiving
The thing with the parachute behind the boat
Giant swings
Luging (although this didn't look all that adventurous)
Coal powered steam ship rides
Fishing
America's Cup sailboat trips
Mini-Golf...over lava pits (ok, made that one up, the lava that is)

Plus all sorts of nightclubs/pubs and fine eateries.

Queenstown sort of reminds me of Tahoe, a nice town on the edge of a beautiful lake, surrounded by mountains, but maybe on speed. I ended up spending four nights there and limited myself to just bungy jumping and a little poker. The poker was so-so, but the bungy was zooky-zooky. I went for the big shebang, the thrillogy. Three jumps from three different locations, the Kawarua Bridge, the Nevis platform, and the Urban ledge.

The first jump was from the bridge on Tuesday afternoon. It's a little nerve-racking standing 43 meters above a river and throwing yourself off, trusting that some piece of rubber is going to keep you from serious bodily harm. It's a pretty quick process, they bind your legs up, attached you to the bungy cord, herd you to the edge and start the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown. On 1 your supposed to dive off. Sounded good to me. However about half way down when I really started to feel like I was moving pretty quickly I was having some second thoughts, those thoughts were quickly pushed out of my head by the flood of water. I had asked for a dip and I got it...up to my waist. Came out of the water for the big bounce and felt liberated. Nothing gets your adrenaline flowing quicker than tossing yourself off a perfectly good solid structure. I was one of the first to go so I luckily had a little while to get me shirt dry after words...and let me heart rate return to a somewhat normal level. I didn't get any photos of me actually jumping but I did get a video of it along with the other three jumps. I'll send it to Wes within the next week and he can work some magic so you can all marvel at my bitchin' bravery. I did get a couple photos of the bridge and platform...

The bridge from the bus

The launch platform

The view out from the launch platform

So the bridge was great and the historical impact wasn't lost on me (no pun intended), but Nevis is a whole different ball game. First off you drive up this crazy skinny steep dirt road to the top of this canyon. Next they trolley you out to this platform suspended by big cables, some 134 meters above a river. Then they make you jump out. Damn. Definitely scary. 134 meters is about 440 feet, pretty freakin' high. Someone else in the platform did take a couple of pictures of me but didn't really get a good one of me taking off. There is Plexiglas in the floor of the platform and he got a picture through that but I think the flash was on so it's not so good either. Oh yeah, and at this one they go from heaviest to lightest so I had the pleasure of going first and setting the standard. Anyway...pics.

Umm...that's really high

The platform

I looked convinced that this is a good idea, right?

Just prior to the leap of faith

That's me at the bottom of that white streak down there

Imagine this is me (it's not, but be creative, I probably looked about the same)

The final jump from the Urban Ledge was the least dramatic. After the other two jumps I was old hat, but this one did allow you a little more freedom as you could run and jump off the platform and do flips and crap. I did a twisting dive thing, nothing too fancy. Here's the one picture I have from the ledge

Only picture I have of the ledge platform, my bad, but it's at the top of a 400 meter hill right behind Queenstown so the view is great

So, hopefully in a few weeks you guys will be able to see the full glory of the bungy experience via my video collection.
Here are some other pictures of Queenstown and the surrounding area.

View from the edge of the Lake, crystal clear water by the way

Lakeside view of the the Remarkables

View of the city from the hill where the ledge jump is. That's the platform in the lower portion of the photo

Looking out over the lake

Clouds plus sunshine over Queenstown

Looking down the Gondola I used to get to the top of the hill

I had to walk by this cemetery on the way to the gondola so I thought I'd snap a pic for Carolyn (Sterling not White)

And this thing, which you can apparently ride on for $10 but I had no idea how and there was no one around.

And now I'm in Invercargill, gateway to the Caitlins and Stewart Island. I hadn't originally planned on being here long because the town itself doesn't get that great of a rap, but this weekend is special. I've walked around town a little bit and it will be easy to find my way home...just follow the trail of drool. Huh? Well, some of you may recall my previous drool reference...that's right...motorcycles. This weekend happens to be the first annual Burt Munro Challenge which will include every shape and size of motorcycle plus plenty of racing and trouble making. The main action starts tomorrow with beach races and an endurance track race. On Sunday is a street race through the roads of Whyndam, about 30 km from here. Hopefully I'll be able to get a ride up there. http://burtmunrochallenge.southlandnz.com/. So the next post will probably have a crapload of motorcycle pictures... till then..

Happy thanksgiving (even though it's actually Friday here)

p.s. I apologize for some formatting inconsistencies. Someone needs to do some work on this editing software.